Video Tag: Synthetic biology

The sweet side of drug discovery: How sugars can help shape the future of medicines

Some of the most powerful medicines we use today come from natural products, which are specialized molecules that plants and microbes have evolved over millions of years. Sugars play a key role in these compounds—determining how a molecule behaves, where it travels in the body and how strongly it activates the immune system. In this Front Row lecture, Scripps Research chemist Yuzhong Liu demonstrated how her lab uses synthetic biology to decode the role of sugars in medicine—helping scientists build next-generation vaccine adjuvants, cancer therapies and safer treatments.

Re-engineering a sustainable world

Since the dawn of life, nature has balanced the composition of our planet’s atmosphere by evolving elegant ways of capturing carbon dioxide. Today, humanity’s overuse of fossil fuels has altered this atmospheric balance to bring about environmental disruptions, and nature is poorly equipped to correct them. In this Front Row lecture, Scripps Research assistant professor Ahmed Badran shared how his lab is developing strategies inspired by plants to help sequester the rising levels of carbon dioxide. His breakthroughs in synthetic biology are guiding revolutionary environmental approaches that could make a lasting impact on the atmosphere and agricultural food systems.